Officials have been alerted to undercover agents from Russia's SVR and FSB espionage services trying to entrap them with sexual favours

Russian spy: Anna Chapman was held by the FBI in New York (Photo: WENN)

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MI5 chiefs have told British officials in Russia to guard against 'honey traps' as ­relations with the Kremlin plunge over Ukraine.

The alert comes as a senior Whitehall lawyer told how a blonde beauty tried to entrap him when he went to a conference in Moscow.

She approached him while he had an after-dinner drink in a bar.

He said: “I thought MI5 was being over-cautious until a woman who looked like a model began chatting and told me her favourite part of the UK was Bath, my home town.

“She told me how she would love to visit the city.

“She was extremely friendly and very touchy-feely and I was flattered.

“I thought what a coincidence she wanted to visit my home town.

Held: Parliamentary aide Katia Zatulivete was arrested on suspicion of being a Russian spy

“Then I realised I was being played and left.

“Why would a beautiful woman be interested in a balding, overweight, ­middle- aged man like me?”

The sex stings – which use male as well as female agents – are run by Russia’s SVR foreign spy service and its FSB domestic arm, successors to the KGB.

The women, known as swallows, are chosen for their looks and brains. And the men, called ravens, target high-placed but lonely women. All of them get training in the arts of seduction at a secret academy.

As relations with Russia turn frosty over the annexation of Crimea, UK envoys and officials have been told to expect more honey-traps.

MI5’s website warns: “A foreign intelligence service operates best in its own country where they can ­control the environment and take advantage of any perceived vulnerabilities.”